Feeding and stoking attachment for furnaces.



v J. A. LANIGAN & D. J. CARSON. FEEDING AND STOKING ATTACHMENT FOR FURNACES.

APPLICATION FILED 001. 14. 1912.

1,1 30,41 1 Patented Mar. 2, 1915.

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J. A. LANIGAN & D. J. CARSON.

FEEDING AND STOKING ATTACHMENT FOR FURNACES.

APPLICATION FILED OCT. 14, 1912.

1,]. 30,41 1 Patented Mar. 2, 1915.

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JAMES A. LAN'IGAN, 0F LANCASTER, AND DAVID J. CARSON, 0F BUFFALO, NEW YORK.

FEEDING AND STOKING ATTACHMENT FOR FURNACES.

Application filed October 14, 1912.

To all whom it may concern Be it known that we, JAMES A. LANIGAN, a citizen of the United States, residing at Lancaster, in the county of Erie and State of New York, and DAVID J. CARsoN, a subject of the King of Great Britain, residing,

at Buffalo, in the county of Erie and State of New York, have invented a new and useful Improvement in Feeding and stoking Attachments for Furnaces, of which the following is a specification.

This invention relates to a combined feed and stoker attachment intended more particularly for blast furnaces but capable of use on any furnace in which it is essentlal or desirable that a high heat be constantly maintained and that the feed and stoker door or doors of the furnace be kept closed as much as possible.

In blast furnaces as commonly constructed, it has been found that the constant opening of the door, necessary for feeding and stoking the fire, interferes materially with the efficiency of the furnace. In these furnaces it is highly important that a maximum temperature be maintained at all times, and to accomplish this a careful adjustment of the fuel and air blast ratio is required, and the more uniformly this ratio can be maintained the greater the heat and the efficiency of the furnace. The fire in these furnaces requires almost constant feeding and stoking, and the frequentopening of the furnace door for this purpose admits a draft of cold air into the fire which seriously interferes with the desired ratio which should be maintained between the fuel and the air blast. Further, when the cold fuel is thrown directly upon the fire, it tends to materially reduce the heat of the fire. Both the opening of the furnace.

door for feeding and stoking and the feeding of the fuel direct to the "fire thus considerably retard combustion and make it impossible to maintain a constant maximum temperature in the furnace. Hence the efiiciency of the furnace is materially diminished, not all the heat from the fuel can be utilized, thus necessitating the use of more fuel, and a much longer heat with its accompanying dangers of oxidization of the metal.

The object of this invention is to provide a feeding and stoking attachment for the doors of furnaces of this type of simple and Specification of Letters Patent.

Patented Mar. 2, 1915.

Serial No. 725,602.

inexpensive construction which will permit the fuel to be easily fed to the fire and the fire readily stoked without admitting any harmful draft to the furnace, and without exposing the stoker to the heat and the smoke and hot gases of the furnace, and in which the fuel which is to be fed to the fire can be easily heated before being placed on the fire so as not to cool the same.

In the accompanying drawings, consisting of two sheets: Figure 1 is a front elevation of a feeding and stoking attachment embodying the invention. Fig. 2 is a side elevation thereof. Fig. 3 is a sectional elevation thereof in line 33, Fig. 1, showing in dotted lines a fragmentary section of the side wall of a furnace. Fig. 4: is a horizontal section in line 44, Fig. 1.

Like reference characters refer to like parts in the several figures. 7

The attachment, in general terms, comprises a hollow box or casing having front and side walls, closed at its bottom and open at its top, and also preferably open at its rear side although this last is not necessary and, if desired, the casing may be provided with a rear wall having a feed opening in the lower portion thereof which should 7 correspond with the feed door opening of the furnace to which the attachment is to be secured. The casing is divided by a partition into an upper fuel compartment and a lower feeding compartment and means are provided for dumping the fuel from the upper compartment into the lower compartment. The casing is adapted to be secured to the front side of the furnace with its lower compartment embracing the feed door opening of the furnace, the door being removed. In the front wall of the lower compartment is arranged an elongated metal plate or closure having an opening therein for the stoking iron. This plate is mounted so that it can be easily moved endwise transversely of the casing to permit the stoking iron to be shifted laterally from one side of the fire box to the other, and the length of the plate is such that in its endwise movements it will always form a closure for that portion of the front of the lower compartment which it covers so as to prevent the admission of outside air to the fire save what little may pass through the small stoker opening inthis plate.

In the particular embodiment of the invention shown in the drawings, A A represent the spaced side walls of the casing, each of which is provided at its inner edge with a flange a which is adapted to be bolted or otherwise suitably secured to the side wall of the furnace, holes a being provided for this purpose.

B represents the bottom wall which closes the space between the side walls and is preferably inclined toward the rear side of the casing to permit the fuel which falls thereon to be easily fed to the furnace. This wall is preferably formed integrally with the side walls and is provided at its inner or rear edge with a depending flange b which may be bolted or otherwise suitably secured to the side of the furnace.

0 represents an elongated stoking plate which, in the construction shown, forms the lower portion of the front wall of the casing. This plate is provided substantially midway between its ends with an opening 0 which communicates with the interior of the casing and is adapted to permit the insertion of the stoking iron for feeding and stoking the fire. This plate is slidably mounted so that it can be moved back and forth across the front side of the casing to permit the stoking iron to be shifted laterally to different parts of the fire without being removed, and for this purpose any suitable means may be employed.

In the construction shown, the sliding stoker plate is provided with depending yokes 0 in which are journaled rollers D adapted to travel on a track cl which is suspended beneath the plate C by brackets d which are bolted or otherwise secured to the bottom wall '13 and are preferably cast inte gral with the track (Z. The plate C and the track (1 are both of greater length than the width of the casing and are so arranged relative to the stoker opening 0 that the plate C can be moved endwise on the track a sufficient distance to move this opening from one side of the casing to the other, and in this movement the plate C will at all times form a closure for the lower portionof the front wall of the casing. ()n its front side the plate-C has a stiffening rib 0 to prevent it from warping under the action of the heat from the fire, and at its opposite ends it is provided with inturned end lugs or stops 0 which are adapted to engage the sides of the casing and form stops for limiting the endwise movement of this plate. The remainder of the front side of the casing above the sliding plate C, in the construction shown, is closed-by a movable door or plate Ewhich is mounted in the casing so that it can be raised when desired to give access to the door opening of the furnace. Any suitable means may be employed for this purpose. In the construction shown, the door is mounted to slide up and down in guide-ways on the side walls of the casing and for this purpose the door consists of a flat metal plate of suflicient width to overlap the outer edges of the side walls A. and is provided on its inner face, opposite the furnace door opening, with a stiffening rib 6.

Guide plates F are secured by bolts or other suitable means to the outer sides of the walls a. and extend outwardly beyond the outer edges of these walls, each guide plate having an inturned flange 7 at its outer edge which is adapted to overlap the side edge of the door and which forms with the outer edge of the side wall a channel or guide-way for this door. Ears or lugs f on the opposite side edges of the door are adapted to engage the upper ends of the guide plates and limit the downward movement of the door in its guide-ways.

The guide plates F extend beyond th' lower edge of the door E and are cut away at their lower edges to straddle the sliding plate C, with their flanges f overlapping the outer side of this plate and forming guides therefor.

In the construction shown and above de scribed, the front wall of the casing formed by the sliding stoker plate C and the door E but, if desired, this wall may be con structed in any other suitable manner and it is not intended to limit the invention to the particular construction shown.

The interior of the casing is divided into its upper fuel compartment and its lower feeding compartment by a partition which may be constructed in any suitable manner and provided with any suitable means for dumping the fuel from the upper into the lower compartment. In the construction shown, the partition has a stiffening rib g on its underside and is provided at one edge with a transverse shaft H which is preferably cast integral therewith and is journaled at its opposite ends in the side walls A. The ends of this shaft project outwardly beyond the sides of the casing and each end is provided with a laterally extending lug or cam portion 72, preferably integral therewith. At one end, this shaft is provided with a handle it for turning the same to swing the partition downwardly for dumping the fuel resting thereon. To receive the shaft H, the side walls A are provided at their front edges with open ended bearing slots it into which the shaft can be inserted from the front side of the casing. This is done before the guide plates F are secured to the side walls, and these guide plates are cut away at their rear edges to straddle the shaft and bear against the front side thereof to hold the same in place in the bearing slots 71!.

To retain the partition normally in its horizontal fuel supporting position, flat springs T are provided which are secured at one end to laterally projecting lugs 2' formed on the guide plates F and at their free ends engage the cam lugs h on the ends of the shaft and tend to hold this shaft normally in the position in which its partition forms the bottom for the upper compartment. Any other suitable means, however, may be employed for normally retaining the partition in this position.

The fuel is shoveled or otherwise deposited into the open upper end of the attachment until the upper compartment is filled or partiallv filled, as may be required. When it is necessary to add fuel to the fire, the operator, by means of the handle 72/ swings down the hinged partition and dumps the fuel from the upper into the lower compartment, where it will rest partially on the inclined bottom of this compartment and partially on the lower wall of the door opening of the furnace. The fuel in this position is exposed to the heat of the fire and it is allowed to remain here for several minutes until it becomes heated and slightly coked. The operator then, by means of the stoking iron which is inserted through the opening in the sliding front plate, proceeds to spread the fuel over the surface of the fire.

The hinged partition is swung back to its normal horizontal position as soon as the coal is dumped and it will thus be seen that practically no draft of air is admitted to the furnace during the feeding operation. The same is true of the stoking operation, as all of the stoking is done through the small. stoker opening in the sliding front plate which permits the stoking iron to be shifted laterally without opening the front of the lower compartment.

Owing to the fact that the lower compartment is substantially closed at all times, not only are all harmful drafts of air prevented from entering the fire box in feeding and stolring the fire, but also the smoke, cinders and hot gases from the fire are prevented from escaping into the furnace room, and the operator is not exposed to the fierce heat rays of the fire when feeding and stoking the same. When, however, it becomes necessary for any reason to obtain access to the door opening of the furnace, the door on the front side of the attachment casing may be raised to give access thereto.

The attachment is simple in construction, can be economically manufactured and is adapted to be easily attached in position on various different types of blast and other furnaces as the same are commonly constructed, and, if desired, the attachment can be formed integral with the furnace when the latter is constructed. The attachment enables a maximum temperature to be constantly maintained in the furnace, thus reducing the time necessary for the heat, de

creasing the amount of fuel required and materially increasing the efliciency of the furnace.

We claim as our invention:

1. A casing adapted to inclose the fuel door opening of a furnace and adapted to contain a charge of fuel, said casing having upright stationary side Walls and a front wall comprising a section which is movable horizontally sidewise of the casing and is provided with a relatively small hole for the passage of a stolring iron which is shifted to different positions laterally of the easing by the movement of said section, and a vertically movable front Wall section slid ably arranged with reference to said side walls and movable toward and from said horizontally movable section.

2. The combination of a casing adapted to inclose the fuel door opening of a furnace and adapted to contain a charge of fuel, a member which is movable relatively to said casing to discharge said charge of fuel from said easing into the door opening of the furnace, said casing having at its front an opening which extends horizontally for substan tially the full width of the furnace door opening, and a closure for said opening in the casing, which closure is provided with a relatively small hole for the passage of the stolring iron and is movable horizontally to shift said stoker hole laterally to enable the use of the stoking iron to different desired positions.

3. The combination of a casing adapted to inclose the fuel door opening of a furnace and to contain a charge of fuel, said casing comprising upright stationary side walls and a front wall, said casing having an opening in its front wall which extends substantially from side to side thereof, and a closure plate for said opening mounted on said casing to move edgewise transversely of the casing, said plate being provided with a relatively small hole communicating with the interior of the casing for the passage of the stoking iron through the same.

4. The combination of a casing adapted to be secured at the front of a furnace to inclose the fuel door opening therein and having stationary upright side walls and a bottom, a partition pivoted to said upright walls intermediate of the ends thereofand dividing said easing into upper and'lower compartments, the lower compartment having an opening at the front of the casing which is relatively long horizontally, and a closure for said opening which is provided with a relatively small hole for the passage of a stolring iron and is movable horizontally to shift said stoker laterally to enable the use of the stoking iron in different desired positions.

5. A casing adapted to inclose the fuel door opening of a furnace and adapted to contain a charge of fuel, said casing having bottom and side Walls, and a front wall comprising a section which is movable horizontally sidewise of the casing and has a relatively small hole for the passage of the stoking iron, which hole is shifted laterally of the casing by the movement of said seo tion and an upper front Wall section which is movable toward and from said horizonsally movable section, one side of said hole for she sioking iron being closed by said last mentioned front wall section whereby the stoking iron can be inserted into and removed from said hole when said upper front wall section is moved away from said 1 horizontally movable section.

Witness our hands, this 27th day of Sep tember, 1912.

JAMES A. LANIGAN. DAVID J. CARSON.

Witnesses:

E. C. HARD, E. R. CAsE.

Copies of this patent may be obtained for five cents each, by addressing the Commissioner of Patents,

Washington, D. G. 

